NPR Blames Me for Popularizing “Democrat Party”

Oct 9, 2014

RUSH: On NPR today they had I guess a call-in segment, and some woman, smart woman called up and said, “You know, I object to you people calling them the Democratic Party. It’s not the Democratic Party. It’s the Democrat Party, Republican Party, and you keep –” And that got blamed on me. We have the sound bite.

I’m proud of that, too, ’cause I did start that trend. It’s been years ago that I started refusing to call ’em “democratic,” ’cause they’re not anyway. They’re the Autocratic Party. If you want to put an I-C after the name, they’re the Autocratic Party. There’s nothing democratic about the Democratic Party.

It’s not the Republican-ic Party. It’s not the Republican-in Party. It’s the Republican Party. So I long ago did this. Minor little point. I knew it was gonna irritate ’em, and sure enough it has. It really has.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let me mention this, get this one out of the way. This is what happened on NPR yesterday. Chris Cillizza, our old buddy at the Washington Post, was a guest, along with Norman Ornstein and Susan Davis from USA Today. A caller called in, Ann in Missouri, “I’m questioning the use of the term ‘democratic’ amongst your panelists as well as all across the news media. A person either belongs in the Democrat Party, the Republican Party, or some other party. But they don’t belong in the ‘Democratic’ Party. Our country’s a democracy and we should keep the word ‘democratic’ isolated from politics.”

This what Cillizza said.

CILLIZZA: To me, getting fixated on things like this, this, to me, is a perfect example of why our politics — and I would say this if this were the ‘Republic’ Party. This is not about bias. (gasps) This is a perfect example of why our politics are so incredibly small. People say, “I don’t understand why they don’t tackle the big ideas.” Like, let’s grow up!

ORNSTEIN: This is something that has rankled Democrats for a very long time because it’s as if, uh, you have a large number of people — and many Republican politicians do this, too — who are just dissing their party.

RUSH: Yeah. Well, you wonder why it’s small politics? The Democrats get all upset about it? If it’s not that big a deal, ignore it. Diane Rehm was the host of the program, and she and Susan Davis of USA Today continued the discussion. This is where the name of your beloved host is invoked.

REHM: (haltingly) You know, it is interesting. I do listen to Rush Limbaugh quite frequently. Seems to me it kind of began there. Susan, am I wrong?

DAVIS: I think it is an offshoot of sort of Republican talk radio and that, actually, my understanding of the idea that you should call it the ‘Democrat’ Party was more not a matter of respect. It was more a matter of insult, that the root of them was sort of not giving them that credit.

RUSH: Was that Diane Rehm or Jill Abrams? (interruption) Diane…? (impression) “You know, it is interestiiiiiing. I do listen to Rushhhhh Limbowwww…and…” Oops out of time.